CEBU, Philippines – A shipment of about 6,907 pieces of assorted lumber worth over P2.6 million was seized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7 last February 7.
Acting on a report from DENR central office, DENR-7 Regional Executive Director Leonardo Sibbaluca immediately dispatched a team to monitor the MV Princess of the Earth as it approached Cebu from Butuan City.
The team then swooped down on the ship after it arrived at Pier 5 at 6:20 a.m. of February 7.
The shipment – composed of 82,546 board feet of mixed bagras and lauan – worth P32 per board feet or a total of P2,641,472.
During the apprehension of the shipment, DENR-7 information officer Eddie Llamedo said no shipper appeared to present the required documents.
Under DENR Administrative Order (DAO) 97-32, the shippers of the lumber violated the provision on the requirement of original transport documents to accompany the shipment at all times. Such documents must be presented anytime to the DENR officer.
A certain Fernando Ting only presented transport documents at 5 p.m., almost 10 hours after the seizure of the shipment. Ting presented documents together with the bill receipts.
There were two transport documents presented which declared a total volume of 54,122.45 board feet of bagras.
However, the declared volume in the transport clearances has almost 32,000 board feet difference from the total volume scaled by the DENR officers, which reached more than 82,000 board feet.
Llamedo said that the shippers have misdeclared the shipment, which was clearly evident from the details printed in the transport documents and the absence of hatchet marks in the lumbers confiscated.
He said the absence of hatchet marks in both ends of each lumber was a proof that the shipped forest products were not sealed and scaled by forest officers as required by DAO 34-98.
While investigation is ongoing, the seized lumber will stay under the custody of the DENR. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/LPM (THE FREEMAN)